Soccer crushes Nichols in opener

By David Rothstein

The Nichols College men's soccer team came to MIT like a lamb to the
ritual slaughter. And slaughtered the Bison were, giving MIT a 6-0 win in
its home opener, coach Walter Alessi ample opportunity to substitute in
second-line players, and Tech goalies Chris Prince '92 and Lee Morganroth
'92, well, absolutely nothing to do in goal.

The Engineers built up a 5-0 lead by halftime, and perhaps only mercy and
mass-substitution by Alessi midway through the second half spared Nichols
the ignominy of a double-digit blanking.

Although it must be granted that Nichols is no indomitable lion on the
soccer field, MIT did more than show up for this game. Crisp passing and
continued intensity characterized the team effort, although MIT became
somewhat careless at times on defense, even if understandably so.

"When we got ahead," said coach Walter Alessi after the match, "we took
some chances [on defense]. If we did that against stronger teams, they
might capitalize [on MIT's miscues]."

The chances to which Alessi, now in his 16th year as coach, alluded came
when the Engineers' defensive line moved far upfield as MIT continued
pressure on the Nichols goal. It would have been risking ineffectiveness
had Nichols managed to make a quick break.

Then again, one could probably have counted on the fingers of two
(perhaps three) hands the number of times the ball crossed deep into MIT
territory. Not that anyone bothered counting.

Senior forward Marc Bailey opened the scoring for MIT with a goal only
five minutes, 43 seconds into the game, assisted by Willie Scruggs '92.
Matthew Dieterich '91 followed at 23:52 with a shot from 20 yards out that
hit the right post past diving Nichols goalie Ken O'Brien, and bounced into
the back left corner of the net. Marcello Torres '91 got the assist.

Co-captain Hannes Smarason '91 scored goals Nos. 3 and 4. The first one
came at 18:49 as Smarason tipped in a David Irvine '93 shot that bounced
once again off diving O'Brien's hands. Stephan Feldgoise '92 was credited
with an assist, along with Irvine.

Smarason's second score came at 15:00 on a solo shot from about 30 yards
out.

Senior Robert Bellis' goal at 2:20 (Dieterich assist) rounded out MIT's
scoring in the first half.

Alex Mitelman '93 hit a low shot into the left corner at 16:54 for MIT's
last goal, with the assist going to Bellis.

The Engineers outshot Nichols, 22-3, and goalies Prince and Morganroth
made only one save between the two of them, while Nichols keeper O'Brien
made 14.